Spring 2018/Fuller Online

IS502

Bolger

IS502: PRACTICES OF COMMUNITY (4 Units: 160 hours). Ryan Bolger.

DESCRIPTION: Christian practices constitute the Christian life. The combined Christian practices of vocational formation, worship, community, and mission facilitate the integration of personal, spiritual, academic, and global formation into the vocational coherence of a Christian leader through reflection, relationships, and practices. IS502 is an integrative course that explores the identity and practices of Christian community as a people called, gathered, and sent by God. Together, professor and students study and enact historic Christian disciplines necessitated by this distinctive identity (hospitality, forgiveness, promise-keeping, truth-telling, gratitude, and testimony) in order to form students who demonstrate capacities to cultivate a theologically reflective practice of Christian discipleship.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: (1) Students will have demonstrated capacities to critically reflect on their current and past experiences of Christian practices of community. (2) Students will have demonstrated through participation in local contexts the capacity to engage in activities and exercises related to Christian spiritual disciplines and practices of community. (3) Students will have demonstrated capacities to engage scripture, tradition, and contemporary resources to reflect theologically on historic and personal practices of community. (4) Students will have articulated how community practices impact their response to the Central Integration Question (CIQ) and will identify exercises, habits, and disciplines to embody these practices within their sociocultural context.

COURSE FORMAT: This course meets ten weeks online (which includes required synchronous and/or asynchronous participation in vocation and formation groups) for a total of 40 instructional hours. Students are required to interact with the material, with each other, and with the instructor regularly through online discussions, reading, and other assignments that promote active learning.

REQUIRED READING: 1185 pp. of required reading and/or the equivalent time in viewing.

A. Required Textbooks

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together. HarperOne, 2009. ISBN: 978-0060608521, Pub. Price $14.99 [128 pp.]

Block, Peter, Walter Brueggemann, and John McNight. An Other Kingdom: Departing the Consumer Economy. Wiley, 2016. ISBN: 978-1119194729, Pub. Price $17.00 [144 pp.]

Mobsby, Ian and Mark Berry. A New Monastic Handbook, Canterbury Press, 2014. ISBN: 978-1848254589, Pub. Price $27.00 [212 pp. assigned]

Pohl, Christine. Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us. Eerdmans, 2011. ISBN: 978-0802849854, Pub. Price $20.00 [178 pp. assigned].

Smith, C. Christopher & John Pattison. Slow Church. InterVarsity, 2014. ISBN: 978-0830841141, Pub. Price $17.00 [211 pp. assigned].

Vanier, Jean. Community and Growth. Paulist Press, 1989. 2nd Ed. ISBN: 978-0809131358, Pub. Price $22.99 [217 pp. assigned]

The Holy Bible. CEB, NRSV, and TNIV translations are acceptable [50 pp. from both Old and New Testaments].

B. Core Practices

Christian Formation

See Bonhoeffer

See Mobsby and Berry

See Pohl

See Smith et al

Hospitality/Inclusion

See Bonhoeffer

See Mobsby and Berry
See Pohl
See Smith and Pattison

Truth-Telling

See Block et al
See Pohl
See Vanier

Testimony/Story-telling

See Mobsby and Berry
See Pohl

Forgiveness
See Bonhoeffer
See Lohfink
See Mobsby and Berry

Gratitude

See Pohl
See Smith and Pattison

Promise-Keeping

See Pohl

Group Spiritual Direction

In-class resources

ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:

  1. 1185 pages of required reading [This assignment is related to learning outcome #3]. [60 hours].
  1. Online and Vocation Formation Group (VFG) Participation: Students will participate in active learning to foster understanding of and capacity for engaging in theologically-informed reflection in the online classroom and through participation in Vocation Formation Groups. (24%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #2, #3 and #4]. [32 hours +8 hours].
  2. Directed Exercises and Integrative Reflection: Student will participate in disciplines and exercises outside of the classroom over the course of the quarter related to the core practices of the course and reflect on these experiences in a way that integrates experience with course content. (15%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2 and #3] [16 hours + reading hours from above].
  1. Various fieldwork activities and reflections (16%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #2]. [8 hours + 8 hours = 16 hours].
  1. Autobiography: Students will create an autobiography related to practices of community (5%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1]. [5 hours].
  2. Final Integrative Assignment: Integration paper that reflects theologically on the practices of this course and their implications for the student’s response to the CIQ and the exercises, habits, and disciplines in their current Rule of Life. (40%). [This assignment is related to learning outcome #1, #3, and #4]. [23 hours].

PREREQUISITES: IS500 encouraged. Recommended in first year of study.

RELATIONSHIP TO CURRICULUM: Meets a core integration requirement in the 120 MDiv and the 80 MAT, 80 MATM, 80 MAICS Programs (Fall 2015).

FINAL EXAMINATION: None.

NOTE: This ECD is a reliable guide to the course design but is subject to modification. Textbook prices are set by publishers and are subject to change.